YYH Never Gone
by peroxidepest17
Summary: Kurama indulges sometimes, in little flights of fancy.


**Title:** Never Gone  
**Universe:** Yu Yu Hakusho  
**Theme/Topic:** N/A  
**Rating:** PG  
**Character/Pairing/s:** lightly KuramaxHiei  
**Warnings/Spoilers:** mild spoilers for the end of the series? Sort of? Also, ages are probably off as I'm guesstimating. XD  
**Word Count:** 1,025  
**Time: **Days, and no edits because I hate this too much to reread it. XD I suck.  
**Summary:** Kurama indulges sometimes, in little flights of fancy.  
**Dedication:** Ann- Haha I haven't written YYH in…FOREVER. O.o **  
A/N:** Boring! This is…boring and really pretty retarded. O.o  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine, though I wish constantly.  
**Distribution:** Just lemme know.

* * *

It's been years really, since he's heard from Hiei, even longer still, since he's seen the other demon.

Years are, of course, a drop in the bucket to creatures like them, the human equivalent of having gone a week without seeing each other given both Kurama and Hiei's respective expected lifetimes.

Kurama wonders if, perhaps, he's growing to become too human maybe, when not hearing from Hiei for a good eight years feels like a long time.

But he doesn't dwell on it too much, contents himself with imprecise reports from Reikai every now and again to see if the other demon is doing alright— he invariably is— and from there, life consists of the daily grind of human living that Shuuichi Minamino has to endure, the redhead kept busy enough in this realm such that he can't be left to linger idly for too long at a time, thinking about how his friend is doing.

Sometimes though, he lets himself humor the thought that he might be a little bit lonely without Hiei around.

It's always in the comfort of his own home and it never lasts very long, but when it comes he doesn't fight it really, sits on his couch or his bed reading and thinking of wild demon forests and wild demon adversaries and how it had felt to run through them with Hiei and Yusuke and Kuwabara all. Back then, the most important thing on his itinerary had been saving the world.

Now he's working on his PhD candidacy and killing minor demons escaped to the human world on weekends, or whenever Kuwabara or Yusuke absolutely can't get out of class/work in time to do it themselves.

It's absurd though, to think that at 24, the most exciting time of his life has already passed him by.

That he feels as if his prime has long since gone at a time when the people 'his age' are supposed to be having the best time of their lives, simultaneously amuses him and horrifies him.

Wryly, he thinks that he must be some sort of old human man in spirit, sitting around in his apartment reading on a Friday night, reminiscing to himself about the glory days of the past.

His classmates can't see the charm in spending the weekend locked up inside reading and remembering, but they've long since given up trying to coax him out to have a little fun with them. Whatever it is he does on his own in his free time seems very important to him, and they suppose they can't argue the brilliance Shuuichi performs with at school—probably a direct result of his studiousness (boringness).

They really don't understand at all, he supposes, and he shouldn't expect them to.

They can't possibly know the thrill of running free in a world both beautiful and dangerous, of battling to survive by the skin of their teeth and always having to be ready for the next time, the next fight.

There are very few, Kurama thinks, who understand it as he does.

And even fewer who can look back on those types of things with him and smile, who can laugh and recall the scars with a strange, wicked fondness.

So he is left to remember them himself instead, to smile alone and laugh by himself and recall his scars in the comfort of his own mind.

Sometimes though, when he is dwelling on such things intently enough, he thinks that he can even feel Hiei a little bit, like the little fire demon is right there next to him again, familiar, brilliant youki lingering in the fox's periphery just as it had in years past.

The feeling always sends a little thrill down his spine, and before, on those nights when he'd feel it the most he remembers going out to his balcony window and peering out, half expecting Hiei to be there with the next mission from Reikai or something, the dark-haired demon snorting and telling Kurama to hurry up and get moving because the other two idiots are already waiting for them.

But every time he'd done that he'd been greeted with nothing but the quiet of the outside night, and the feeling of foolishness a very human part of him would experience for letting himself indulge in such strange, superstitious acts.

If Hiei were truly here, Kurama would have been able to feel it as a certainty, without a shadow of a doubt. Hiei wouldn't hide from him if he came here, after all.

And he wouldn't come here, as strange as Kurama feels sometimes, like something is prickling just the outside edge of his awareness. A flicker.

In the end he's decided that it's all probably something brought on by his own whimsical imagination in a subconscious flight of fancy. A particularly school-girlish one at that.

He's not so naïve as to be able to fool himself (very often) into believing that there is something here important enough to Hiei that he would leave his duties in Makai for any amount of time.

That thought firmly in mind Kurama yawns and closes his textbook after combing through another chapter and a half, the redhead setting it on the nightstand by his bed before switching his little reading lamp off with a soft click.

He thinks that maybe he's been human for far too long really; if his emotions are strong enough to overcome his good sense and he can so easily fool himself into believing that on some nights, he can feel Hiei here, very close.

He closes his eyes and forces himself to go to sleep with that self-deprecating thought in mind, ignoring the fine tremor that runs down his spine when he lies down, the one that makes him want to throw the window open and peer out into the night again, just in case.

He falls asleep and dreams of wild demon forests and the joy of running free, fast, happy, with friends and loved ones at his side.

Outside his window, Hiei lingers for just a moment longer after the light goes out, before turning and heading home.

**END **


End file.
